The present invention generally relates to archery, and more particularly, to fall away arrow rests.
Archery bows, such as compound bows, conventionally possess a handle riser section generally where an archer grasps the bow with one of the archer""s hands. The handle riser section includes a window section through which an arrow extends when the arrow is drawn rearwardly as the bowstring is drawn and momentarily after releasing the bowstring and during the initial firing of the arrow.
When an arrow is fired, the arrow both bends and is thrust downwardly. A number of arrow rests have been designed to help absorb any downward or sideward flexing or any downward thrust of the arrow in order to improve arrow flight accuracy. Many of these arrow rests are designed to eliminate or minimize any potential contact of the arrow feathers or vanes with the arrow rest, which would cause the trajectory of the arrow to be altered.
While arrow rests are designed to avoid bumping of the arrow shaft or contact with the arrow vanes, such designs often do not accomplish those goals, because either the archery assembly is not well tuned, or the archer utilizes imperfect technique. For example, if the archer does not select a proper nocking point at which the nock of an arrow contacts the bowstring, if the stiffness or thickness of the arrow shaft or spine are not properly selected, if the arrow rest is located too high or too low or too much to the left or the right, if the resilience of the arrow rest is too stiff or too light, or if the length of the arrow in combination with the orientation of the arrow vanes (which may be slanted in order to spin) is not properly selected, then the arrow shaft or arrow vanes may forcibly contact the arrow rest in a way that significantly alters the trajectory of the arrow. Also, for example, the archer may improperly release the arrow upon firing, and the archer may subject the bow to some inadvertent horizontal or vertical movement that is transferred to the rest, each of which may cause the arrow shaft or arrow vanes to severely contact the arrow rest
Many retractable or so-called xe2x80x9cfall awayxe2x80x9d arrow rests have been designed so that when the arrow is fired, the arrow rest retracts or falls out of way of the arrow shaft and arrow vanes. Many of these designs suffer from some of the following disadvantages: the arrow rest does not retract or fall away immediately upon firing the arrow, the retractable fall away feature is cumbersome, or the arrow rest moves as the arrow is being drawn rearwardly.
The present invention relates to a fall away arrow rest in which the launcher arm normally extends upwardly and forwardly in the arrow window and is adapted to fall immediately downwardly under spring bias upon firing the arrow. The arrow rest includes a mechanism for maintaining the launcher arm in the substantially upward position during substantially the entire draw of the arrow.